Reserves

Overview
The Maplewood Police Reserve Unit consists of non-sworn volunteers who make themselves available 24 hours a day year round to assist the police officers and citizens of Maplewood in many capacities. Since 2004 they have donated over 71,366 hours to the city.

These volunteers are an integral part of the Maplewood Police Department, efficiently and effectively augmenting and supporting the department's regular compliment of officers. The Current reserve unit consists of a Reserve Commander, three Lieutenant’s, six Sergeants, and Senior and Junior officers.

Many Walks of Life

Maplewood Reserve Officers come from many walks of life. Some are members of the community who wish to give something back. Others are law enforcement students who are looking to gain experience and hands on learning to help them in their future careers.

Reserve officers share and in some cases take on the responsibilities of certain duties, which would normally require the deferment of regular officers from active patrol.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of reserve officers include patrolling the city in a squad, bike patrol, assisting with traffic control at events and at vehicle accidents, assist with emergency situations providing medical assistance if necessary, and providing security at local events and crime scenes. Reserve officers are also called out for emergencies to help compliment the full-time officers with more assistance.

Patrol

Maplewood Police Reserve officers are required to work at least one
eight hour patrol shift per month, however many officers do more than
one shift per month. We currently have two reserve squads that we use
for patrol. Reserves patrol with two officers to a squad and provide
numerous types of services throughout the year. Patrol shifts can be
conducted all days of the week with no set times, although we do
generally work 7pm to 3am most nights.

The patrol hours that our reserve officers perform provides
assistance to the regular officers and gives the community another
visible presence throughout the city. Patrol operations also gives
reserve officers a hands on approach to the patrol function of police
officers and gives them an opportunity to experience and learn different
aspects of being a police officer such as officer safety, dealing with
people, report writing as well as many other areas which will help
prepare those reserve officers who are pursuing careers in law
enforcement.

Some of the functions we provide are general patrol of the
city, extra/directed patrol in neighborhoods and areas that may be
seeing an increase of problems or crimes, assist during traffic safety
initiatives (Safe & Sober saturation), transports, proactive visits,
property watches, assisting officers on calls and taking some calls for
service ourselves. Reserve officers are free to roam all parts of the
city during patrol shifts when we are not responding to a call or
assisting other officers.

One of our duties is to provide transports to keep the officers in
the city and available to respond to calls. Most of the transports we
do are taking people who are under arrest to the Ramsey County Law
Enforcement Center. We also provide rides to other destinations such as
hospitals, Detox, homes, hotels etc. In the past we have also had to
do longer transports such as meeting a squad from another city in
Gaylord, MN who located a missing person from Maplewood.

As we are patrolling the city we try to be proactive and make
visits to those areas that either have people congregating or are known
to be “hot spots” for calls for service. This includes parks, trails,
apartment complexes, business complexes, nightclubs/bars, etc.

Reserve officers will also conduct property watches at the
request of a resident while they are out of town to ensure that the home
is secure.

Reserve officers assist regular officers on calls and also
respond to some calls on our own. We often assist on traffic stops,
traffic accidents, loud parties. Reserve officers also respond to fire
calls and medical calls to assist officers and the fire department, take
recovered property calls, some animal calls, lock outs if there is a
child locked in the vehicle, dangerous conditions such as stalled
vehicles, downed trees, etc.

Bike PatrolThe Maplewood Police Reserve Bike Patrol Unit is made up of
dedicated officers who patrol the city via Smith and Wesson Police
mountain bikes. The Reserve Unit has four Smith and Wesson Police bikes
that have been purchased with grants or by the department. Bike Patrol
Officers receive both classroom and practical training in bike patrol
operations, crowd control techniques and apprehension techniques from a
bike.

The bicycle unit has been very beneficial in
patrolling areas not accessible by police vehicles. These areas include
the State trails that run through Maplewood, park/boat launch areas and
the many areas not visible from a patrol vehicle in this city. Our bike
patrol officers are encouraged to ride as often as possible and to
interact with the community as they do so. This is a positively received
community based policing technique which allows for "one on one"
contact with our community.

The bike unit is operated on all shifts during most of the months of April through October. The unit educates the public aboutbike
and pedestrian rules/safety, monitors areas for crime and safety
concerns, and addresses problems with skateboarders and rollerbladers.
The unit is also able to assist with crowd control at community events
like the White Bear Ave Parade, Ramsey County Fair and Fourth of July
Celebration.

The bike patrol unit also participates in bike rodeos.
Bike rodeos are an event used to help promote bike safety and give kids
the skills and abilities to ride their bikes safe. Our bike patrol unit
hosts the rodeos for church groups, schools, boy and girl scout troops,
and any group that wants one. Bike rodeos consist of a couple different
parts. Reserve Officers start with going over basic safety procedures
while riding a bike. These include laws to follow on the road and hand
signals. Then, the kids participate in a riding portion. The Reserve
Officers set up a course for the kids to ride through that utilize the
signals and skills the kid just learned. The Reserve Officers give
examples how to ride through the course and then help kids ride through
the course successfully.

“If you see us out and about, please feel free to approach us and chat.”

Emergency Callouts

Maplewood Reserve Officers are relied upon to help from time to
time on emergency situations, making the police officers available to
respond to other calls within the city. Reserve officers can be called
in for to help secure crime scenes, natural disasters, missing persons,
severe weather, large fires and to assist other agencies. Callouts can
last for a few hours only requiring a few reserve officers to assist,
others can be large scale requiring numerous reserve officers to assist
or shifts to be setup due to time issues. Large scale events sometimes
require the use of the Incident Command Structure which is recognized by
all emergency responders not just law enforcement.

Large scale events that involve other departments maybe already
be utilizing the Ramsey County Command Vehicle, which houses radios and
camera systems, and serves as a mobile command center.

Events
There are many different events that reserve officers assist with both
within and outside the city of Maplewood throughout the year. We
provide many different services ranging from traffic control, providing
security, answering questions/providing information interacting with the
public. These events range from providing traffic control for
graduations and city clean ups at aldrich arena, the White Bear Ave
Parade, visiting block parties on National Night Out, assisting with
Special Olympic Torch Run/Polar Plunge events, working at the Ramsey
County Fair and other city events.

We also are requested from time to time to help out other
agencies with events. The last few years we have assisted the Ramsey
County Sheriff with traffic control during the Fright Farm at the Ramsey
County Fairgrounds.